John Wayne Gacy confused with actor John Wayne (Video)

Aspiring Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann discovered on Sunday that actor John Wayne is a different person altogether from John Wayne Gacy, the serial killer who raped and murdered more than 30 teen boys and young men in the 1970s. But it's too late. He had already made his ignorance obvious in an interview with Fox News.

While being interviewed by Fox News from Iowa, the Minnesota Representative said, I want them to know just like John Wayne is from Waterloo Iowa, that's the spirit I have too. It's embracing America. It's sacrificing for America.

John Wayne did hail from Iowa -- Winterset, to be precise -- but it's John Wayne Gacy who lived and worked in Waterloo. Immediately after the blunder, Bachmann's camp noted that the actor's parents lived in Waterloo at one point.

Director of the John Wayne Birthplace Society, Brian Downes said that the mistake was not a big deal. He told Politico, We've been misidentified before ... It happens, but the information is posted on Interstates 80 and 35.

John Wayne himself would mangle names like crazy - longtime friends and co-stars, he added.

In Iowa, Bachmann officially began his campaign for the 2012 Republican nomination Monday, saying I want this moment to serve as a reminder of the best of who we are as a nation, and of what our values are, and what it is that makes America great, the report said.